Design of fiber-type wearable friction charging material based on waste sulfur polymer composite material. a $200,000 order

A research team led by Professor Wie Jeong-jae and Professor Han Tae-hee of the Department of Organic and Nanoengineering at Hanyang University won a research project from the U.S. Army Research Institute on the design of waste-based fiber-type wearable friction charging materials using sulfur polymer composite materials. Through the research project, the research team will receive research funding worth $200,000 (about KRW 255 million) for two years.

Friction charging is a common phenomenon that can be easily found in our lives as electricity is generated when an object capable of having a positive charge on the surface and an object capable of having a negative charge on the surface are rubbed against each other. A generator utilizing a friction charging phenomenon is called a triboelectric generator, and a mechanical motion discarded using triboelectric generator can cause friction between negatively and positively charged objects, thereby generating useful electrical energy.

The sulfur polymer is a polymer containing a large amount of elemental sulfur as a main chain and is a new material exhibiting completely different optical and electrical properties from typical carbon-based polymers. In particular, elemental sulfur, which forms a sulfur polymer, is generated every year in high purity through the desulfurization in the purification of petrochemicals. Since 7 million tons of surplus sulfur are generated every year, upcycling elemental sulfur has a potential to form a new value chain. Especially, elemental sulfur has a higher electron affinity value than carbon, and thus can easily attract neighboring electrons.

Professor Wie Jeong-jae’s research team paid attention to the phenomenon and published the world's first research paper introducing sulfur polymer as a new negative charging material for triboelectric generator in the world's renowned international journal "Nano Energy (IF=19.069)" in 2019 and 2022.

The research team said, "Through close collaboration with the U.S. Army Research Institute, we will manufacture sulfur-based composite materials using waste-based elemental sulfur and use them as a fiber-type wearable friction charging system to take the lead in researching eco-friendly energy harvesting systems."

(from the left) Professor Wie Jeong-jae and Professor Han Tae-hee of the Department of Organinc and Nano Engineering